Drunkblogging the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate

5:45PM Before we get started, I’d like to share with you a little something I tell myself before each of these drunkblogs. It’s sort of a secular prayer, if you will, and it goes like this:

Crap.

5:49PM We seriously beefed up our servers after we crashed them multiple times four years ago. In a strange way, it makes me feel the love. A few weeks ago, we even got a new gigabit switch, and I’m going to pretend I know what that is. But it certainly sounds quite impressive. Then last week, during the Denver debate, we managed to crash the servers again, you and me.

My hat’s off to you for that. Thanks. I mean that. Feeling the love, still.

I understand we’ve taken even further safeguards against another server crash again tonight — but I have faith in you.

5:50PM I’m tuned into C-SPAN tonight, but given that I hardly slept last night and am on the verge on passing out already, that might have been a mistake.

5:51PM What was Jill Biden doing in a White House briefing?

Oh, right — she’s the brains of the family.

5:53PM As I’m fond of reminding people, I don’t play drinking games; I drink. But if you’re of a mind, drink every time Biden mentions his mother or “my friend, Barack.”

5:54PM Nevermind. That wasn’t Jill Biden, that was the moderator. There’s so much inbreeding amongst the Complicit Media and high-level Democrats that it’s difficult to tell the difference.

5:56PM For the record, I have never been invited to weddings of any of the figures on tonight’s stage. I decline to answer if I have crashed any of them.

5:58PM Looking around this audience tonight, all I can say is that I miss the Gore girls circa 2000.

5:59PM Or the Huntsman girls as recently as last fall.

6:00PM I will not lose this drunkblog by being too polite.

6:01PM Here we go…

6:02PM Martha Raddatz should fully disclose what the Obama’s bought her as a wedding gift.

7:00PM Biden is making an excellent case for pulling out of Afghanistan, and a crappy case for the surge never should have authorized.

7:01PM Ryan telling the story of one of his best friends fighting in Afghanistan. It’s a good story. It’s a good argument. But nobody can explain why we’re still there.

7:03PM Getting testy again, Joe. He’s trying to run roughshod like he did against Palin, but Ryan is just too reality-based to make it work.

7:04PM Huh. Timelines are how you make the enemy fear you. Who knew?

7:05PM It’s hard to gauge just how well Ryan is doing, because this isn’t a Sherman’s March like Romney enjoyed last week. But there is not one person watching Biden tonight and getting all excited about four more years of this guy.

7:07PM Joe Biden: One Afghan soldier = One US Marine.

I beg to differ.

7:08PM “Afghans to do the job, Afghans to do the job.”

Just annoying as all hell.

7:10PM For the record, I was against our lead-from-the-ass Libya semi-intervention. That said, there is a better (but still not good) argument for a Syria intervention. It’s just not possible to argue against the latter while being for the former. I’m against either, but Obama-Biden is, as always, bass-ackwards.

7:11PM Nice turn to our Russia “reset” by Ryan.

7:13PM My best guess is, Biden is trying to play the grownup. I don’t think it’s working.

7:14PM “We should not have waited for Russia to give us the green light.”

7:35PM Closing comments were about what you’d expect, so I have to stand by my gut call above. Biden needed to reverse things for Obama, and he wasn’t up to the task. Ryan needed to not screw up Romney’s momentum, and he did just that.

Also, jeeze, who knew Biden could be almost as petulant as his boss? That’s my takeaway. What’s yours?

Stephen Green began blogging at VodkaPundit.com in early 2002, and has served as PJMedia's Denver editor since 2008. He's one of the hosts on PJTV, and one-third of PJTV's Trifecta team with Scott Ott and Bill Whittle. Steve lives with his wife and sons in the hills and woods of Monument, Colorado, where he enjoys the occasional lovely adult beverage.

216 Comments, 159 Threads

I am trying to think of a two-word letter, I mean a Latin expression that means in English: a wiseaxx, killer answer from the staircase on the way out.

Twice, I say TWICE, during the debate Biden said, with all the feigned sincerity and poignancy a life-long career of telling lies could muster: “I always mean what I say.”

Fred, from the staircase putting on his great coat like a Karamazov,: “Oh yeah? You always mean what you say? Then you must have meant it when you said about a week ago that the middle-class has been buried over the last FOUR YEARS. Have a very good night, Joe. (I love that guy.)”

You need like 12 lemons (those yellow ones) but you only use the most external peel, the rind, no white from the peel, only the yellow. Therefore, clean very well the lemons to remove any pesticide, dirty, wax, etc.
* Put the rinds in a glass bottle with 1 lt of alcohol 95% (edible one), close and let it sit for 10 days in a dark place.
* At the end of the 10 days, prepare a sugar syrup by boiling 1 lt water with 800 grams (i.e. 1,75 lbs) sugar. Let it cool to room temperature.
* filter the rinds out of the alcohol. Add the syrup to the alcohol. Mix and let it sit again for 10 days.
* After that, filter again the liquor and it’s ready.

I think I may have figured it out. When I click post, if I double-click, or even come close to doing so, it gives me that message. If I make sure I click a bit more slowly and cleanly, I do not get that message, anymore.

I’m a newbie to contributing to the drunkblog tonight, but I have viewed in the past. I’ve selected a 750ml bottle of excellent vintage zinfandel and will move on to cheaper stuff if warranted. What are the drinking phrases tonight?

Who taught Bidden how a bomb works? Any security adviser worth his salt would know that the technology used in a Uranium bomb is simpler to build then the technology it takes to enrich the the Uranium. if they have the Uranium, then they can have a bomb within a month.

Biden is making himself look like an asshole with the constant interrupting. Unfortunately I don’t think Ryan is kicking his ass from a “visual” standpoint. Ryan is holding his own, and I think that’s enough in this one.

I have proof sitting in my hubby’s office that GM went bankrupt. When we refinanced our house to get out of a variable rate, we were shopped around. Sadly, we were picked up by GMAC. This was just last year. Last week we got a letter about the Chapter 11 bankruptcy situation with GMAC. General Motors Acceptance Corporation. So I know Biden lied.

Put a muzzle on Biden, the moderator is in the tank. Now I have to get tanked to listen to this rude, out of touch assclown. A panicky, rude assclown. Moderator is in the tank, it’s 2 vs 1. Interrupting and not letting Ryan speak.

Bless Ryan: he’s head and shoulders above Bide(t) and Martha. But I wish he’d occasionally talk over Martha’s cut-offs the way Romney did with Leher. A little more of kick butt from Ryan would be appreciated!

waitaminute…restarting the M1 tank plant? Hey, this has-been tanker is all for that! Just what the world needs, way more 65 ton battle buggies, and the will to use them in support of national interests. Oh, my bad, that isn’t how da Big Zero rolls. (emilylatellamode=1)Never mind(emilylatellamode=0).

This isn’t a debate in any sense of the word. The “moderator” is debating Ryan, allowing Biden to jabber his sound bite falsehoods in the background (and smile that smarmy, silly, vacuous smile at arguments he can’t counter). On the other hand, I’m really disappointed that Ryan doesn’t challenge the core premise of tax rate cuts “giving” money to the rich (or anyone, for that matter).

Also disappointed that Ryan didn’t counter Biden’s emphatic assertion that tax revenues have never been raised by tax rate cuts (they have every single time they have been enacted everywhere on the planet).

He had talking points for class war, taking care of the careless I mean less fortunate, it was Bush’s fault, and the Generals all say…. but he had a script for a question that was almost as out of left field as was the “character” question.

Biden never never mentioned Paul Ryan by name – not once. How does someone keep calling a person sitting right next to him “my friend” – well, it’s so, well, peculiar. Maybe it works on the floor of the Senate, but in a cozy little chat with Martha?

Ryan won because Joe made sure the Americans he is trying to win over with his smugness and petulance turned the channel and missed any arguments. They will ask, do I want someone that much of a jerk back in the oval office?

(I commented THIRTY MINUTES ago, but my last THREE comments were lost because “You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.” Really? I thought the idea was to give blow by blow comments. One allowed every 30 minutes? Give me a break! I’m going to try again.)

Ah–I sense a great political commercial. It won’t happen, but–play a video of Biden–and then fade away to a voice over–”Even if you prefer Obama over Romney–would you really want something like Biden being President if Obama died in office? Think about it.”

Senator Ryan not only held his own against a life long politician, but made some very excellent points. He had substance but the VP showed experience of one who is comfortable twisting the facts. His body language was not that of a professional. The moderator seemed to be cutting the topic short when the VP was on the defense. The VP’s facial expressions were laughable as was his complaints about not getting enough time.

In fact, Obama is so far ahead, it’s really unfair that we even have to have the election! But we do. So remember, Republicans (the visiting team) vote on November 6th, Democrats (home team, last ups) on November 7th!

Overall, biden was a rude dude, lacking courtesy and professionalism, that unlike the vp, was proudly displayed by Paul Ryan.
Biden launched into a few of his answers so fast and without second thought, I would have to believe he was fed the questions up front.
The moderator was too willing to try and interject herself against Ryan, and did not do so against biden, showing this was a biased setup, one that failed to spark a rude response from Ryan that could play to the fake media’s attempts to paint Ryan badly.
I do think Ryan should have called biden on his BS interruptions and overall idiotic rudeness. I think it would have sent him over the edge and we would have seen the senile/childlike true biden without handlers. He was almost always on the verge of outright shouting in anger during the show.

My impression is that Biden won the debate. Ryan was much stronger on foreign policy with clearer and more sensible answers, but Biden won domestic the same way (when he wasn’t rattling numbers that went in one ear and out the other). Since the public cares about domestic more than foreign, Biden won.

I wish politicians (especially the Democrats) would quit invoking “what the JCS recommends.” The JCS base their recommendations on whatever planning parameters the SecDef (a political appointee) gives them to work with.

Even the PBS guy commented that Biden tends to smile at the wrong time. I kept thinking of Alice in Wonderland:

Alice: My Daddy told me to beware of those who smile a lot.
Cheshire Cat: Why?
Alice: Because they are either very jolly all the time, which is unlikely, or have something to hide.
Cheshire Cat: But I’m not smiling.
Alice: What’s that on your face then?
Cheshire Cat: It’s a grin.
Alice: I don’t know if it’s better or worse, because a grin is a sort of giant smile.
Cheshire Cat: Smile or grin, maybe there’s another possible reason for it.
Alice: What’s that?
Cheshire Cat: Maybe it’s because I’m mad?

Biden proved that he could speak coherently (most of the time) and that his mind is still clear. This is good to know.
Raddatz proved that she favors Obama and Biden. This is also good to know.
And, Ryan demonstrated that he does, indeed, have rather clear, if not stark, beliefs regarding Life and in the necessity of America to be a World Leader in every respect – militarily and economically. This is also good.
Other than the above points, the rest of the debate by all three individuals was mainly fluff with prevarications and calculated confusions thrown in…

Congressman Ryan is Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington –before the third act, of course. Steady, aware, bemused, immune to baiting, and relaxed, clear and confident, never over-trying, always in the flow. A serious man.

Biden was certainly the more comfortable speaker—glib and facile—making up facts with ease. He roamed around and roared as needed. Ryan was factual, disciplined, and on point, and displayed good manners the whole time.

No screen actor Looks more like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan than our new VP Paul Ryan. And Jack Ryan saved the nation and the world only like about what, 8 times?

Reagan? You think Reagan scares them? All we need to do is get Paul Ryan to grow his hair out longer and comb it back: Voila!- the presidential hairdresser lady can give him a hairdo to look exactly like Ronald Reagan’s. BAM !

Scary stuff. Tremble in your boots, democrats and media, a few photos of Ryan in his Reagan hair, posed in a Reagan pose, and your future presidential hopeys are all changied to crap.

Sorry I missed the drunk-blog. I was watching the debate with the Tri-Valley Republican Womens’ Federated group at Cattleman’s Restaurant in Livermore, CA. Great group, great restaurant staff, great debate!

surprised ryan didn’t wipe the floor with him, but glad it is over. a draw, left for others to argue.

interesting that cnn has ryan doing better among women…
shocking that woman would prefer the younger candidate, not.

in the grand scheme, as the debate momentum of romney fades, leaving him with a marginal lead, things roll into the benghazi coverup.

where ryan made no news, that would affect romney’s momentum, the same cannot be said of biden. he just threw a log on the fire for the benghazi bonfire. his answer, most assuredly will not be obama’s answer, when we get there in the real debates.

imho, ryan, as always, seems to have pressured speech. he always struck me as the kid who was coasting along, and suddenly got hit with ritalin…and started substantially achieving. nothing wrong with it, just mho.

as a side note…medicated speech…victoria nuland and that sing song pattern is a lot easier to perform if you are packed full of xanax or valium.

The Left are going to think that Biden won the debate because he talked over the top of Ryan every chance he got. They are not interested in the content of the debate, just who can yell the loudest. If you have nothing to say and you don’t want people to hear an opposing view, you make a lot of noise so the audience can’t hear, or (better in their perception) you try to distract your opponent from his train of thought. Ryan was up to the task, though I’m not sure if Biden failed in his attempt to talk louder and distract the electorate.

Obama the empty chair and Biden the buffoon. Repeat and spread that around to everyone you know. Let those images sink in and become the “narrative” for people to remember on election day. Don’t let up on this people! Romney and Ryan can now be seen as the true leaders and grownups and we must let that stick.

For those who are saying this was a draw or Ryan was a point behind; absolutely not turning out that way. Even the liberals are conceding (reluctantly) that Biden came out the fool and Ryan the cool cucumber. That alone won the debate for Ryan.

Am I being too simplistic? Biden had to move the ball forward. He did not. Ryan simply had to avoid losing ground. He managed to do that (just barely).

If 65% of communication is non-verbal (body language, facial expression, non-verbal cues, etc.), Biden was a disaster. Creepy Uncle Joe (aka the Chesire Cat, per 131. John Gardner) is one heart beat away from the presidency. Incroyable. As one friend put it, Biden is the guy we were all told to STAY AWAY FROM at the family picnic.

The Iranians don’t have a weapon to put it in? What is this? Rocket science? Oh Yeah it is and the Iranians have a rocket! A rocket/missile that will reach Israel. The second piece of a “weapon” is the detonator. Electronically speaking, this is trivial since 1998. The third piece is the fissile material is hard but only hard. Not difficult!

Fissile material. GRRRRRR! Yeah this the choke point. The one that nobody is doing anything about. But we might not know if the Iranians decide to launch a “test” missile over Israel to confirm their nuclear program.

BTW: 4 years ago Sarah Pailin Kicked Biden’s ass. Ryan did the same to a lesser degree. Before you call me a moron check the Constitution for Articles relating to the president of the Senate.

The thing nobody’s talking about wrt Iran and nuclear weapons: all they have to do to make large areas of Israel dead and uninhabitable it to put ‘dirty bombs’ – i.e. highly refined uranium shell around a high-explosive core – on the missiles they already have. Don’t have to refine uranium to fission levels, don’t have to learn how to do precision-implosion spheres, or any of the rest of the trickier parts of nuclear weapons technology. I think they’re already there, or within weeks of it, if that’s what they decide to do. And the mullahs _might_ decide to if they think they, personally, would survive the try. That’s why they need to know we have Israel’s back, with no question.

we’ve had an awfully long run of fantastical characters at the top of the exec branch –really, counting even the good few among the seeming holograms from the Chuck Jones studio, all the way back to Ike.

Now tonight we see on the left side of our screens the baroque or decadent phase of that post-Ike school of governance theater. The apparition came into view tonight for the second time lately –the first of course the prez debate in Denver. In both cases, the other guy on stage has somehow changed the stage-craft, and now the Obama and the Biden look like extremely odd characters to have ever been cast in their current roles in the first place.

Romney and Ryan make for a hundred million forehead-slaps, “what the hell was I thinking? What we need for President (and backup) is plain folks, humble of attitude, but smart, virtuous, and students of the Constitution, that miraculously effective blueprint for this radical experiment called ‘self-governance’”.

You’re back!!!!! Hurrray! IMHO, there was nothing anyone could do short of duct tape to shut Biden up, because he was there to do the work of two men…the fact that he’s too silly to do the work of a teenage boy is beside the point, but how do you tell the VP to shut up and mind his manners? I was aghast at how he used the “my first wife died” argument….oh, your guy takes time to help a person in need? My wife died! …really hamfisted…
I thought that he was picked as VP because he had extensive foreign relations exposure, but they seem to keep him away from the meetings or anything on that subject, because he fell back onthe “we didn’t know then, it wa the tape……we didn’t know they wanted reinforcements” mantra. Let’s say that he was busy practicing…mmm, training for this debate, someone should have told him that the resl facts had come out….they didn’t, so how valuable is he to the administration, when they let him go out there with the same pathetic material they give Ms. Cutler?

Here is my question. Why didn’t Ryan savage Biden? Why not? Biden savaged Ryan and Biden didn’t care how he looked while doing it. Which is the way to do it.

If Biden does it why shouldn’t we? God knows if any person is vulnerable because of their life and statements being gist for the mill, its Biden. I mean this VP will not even say he is this administration’s VP.

And its not like Ryan isn’t up to it. Did the political handlers not see the reason for all out Ryan attacks? Because they are obvious – President creamed, then VP creamed. And Romney beat up Obama with style and class, so Ryan needed worry about creating a wrong impression if he got his hands dirty.

Instead Ryan only held his ground, and Biden halted for now the Obama general erosion. Pity.

Here’s where we see a Romneyesque strategy in motion.
Paul Ryan was told to simply NOT be too rude to this old fool, because the BASE (and a vast majority of the squishy center) won’t like that, while Biden was told to be as rude as he wants, because his base likes that (which just goes to show you how debased and rotten the Democrats really are) .
Romney’s 47% remark was right on target, but the numbers are beside the point. He was talking about his STRATEGY to his supporters, explaining his reasoning to them. The key is that he’s after the rest of the softies in the middle, who I think were quite shocked at discovering what an a-hole Biden really is. Last night changed Biden from that crazy funny uncle you invite who always makes a fool of himself at Thanksgiving into the uncle you never speak to after THIS Thanksgiving, because now he’s rude and nasty, and you’ve just now discovered how nasty he always was.
I’m sure Romney gave Ryan a check-list, because I’m sure that’s how he does things:
1) Don’t be rude to that old fool.
2) Make your points, but don’t bury anybody with numbers. They’re all retarded in the middle. They can’t balance a check-book, and don’t know what the “out years” even means.
3) If Joe interrupts, let him. Every time he sets his mouth in motion, we get more votes.
4) Try not to punch him in his lying mouth. Keep your cool.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mitt arranged for that rude bitch to moderate. Notice, though, the new MSM trick: the first three minutes, I thought she might be a closet conservative, for chrissakes! When she instantly turned into Biden’s bitch (and, toward the end, clearly his prompter, feeding him his lines) it finally made sense. That was so they could point to two or three cuts SHOWING BEYOND ALL DOUBT that she had been “fair”. I’ve noticed this tactic before, but never so brazenly attempted.
Therefore:
5) Don’t attack the commie bitch. Let her run her mouth. She’ll add to the meme of Paul Ryan being persecuted, which, if you just sit there and take it, with those mooneyes and winning smile going full blast, will get us more soccer moms and single moms than all the condoms in China. Think: how would Jesus look? And make that face. Or a beagle puppy, who’s tail has been stepped on. That face will work, too.
Now, the base won’t like it. How in Hell can you watch Babe Ruth sit there and take three strikes (which, because they were all aimed at his head by a nasty pitcher, weren’t even strikes at all)? Well, Romney is an experienced problem-solver, not a pathetic, slimey, know-nothing politician. First problem: he needs to get elected. We’re already voting for him. The commies are not. But that great, big, fat, lazy, stupid blob of useless humanity in the middle is just sitting there begging to be manipulated, nay DEMANDING to be manipulated. Since logic and science are utter strangers to them, that manipulation must be subliminal. They don’t like thinking all that much.
Jesus or Beagle puppy, Paul. Your choice.
Mittens is looking better to me all the time.
(Stephen, this is a repost from Richard’s. If that’s not cool, just delete it. I don’t know how to internally link to another post. Sorry if I made a problem. It just seemed even more appropriate here.)

For what it’s worth, listening on the radio in the car, I thought Biden won by a slight margin — not on points but on old pol smoothness. A bit later, with nothing better to do, I watched the rebroadcast on TV in the motel room. I thought Biden came across as a slick creep I wouldn’t buy used dentures from, and I would have said Ryan won.